Standing up for yourself and your own creative choices

Today I logged on to do a review of the Kodak Ultramax 400 film and as I started writing my review I remembered why I bought it in the first place and decided to talk about that instead. 

 Normally when I choose film it’s because I’ve looked into it I want to try an effect, get a specific look or it’s a film I just like using, so i popped into a local camera shop instead of ordering online and asked if they had Kodak Gold it’s one of my favorites to use but it’s been hard to get a hold of recently but they were all out so I decided to go with my second option, if you’ve read any of my previous reviews you’ll know I like the Kodak Ektar100 too as not only is it great for casual holiday snaps I like the grain I get from using 100 ISO film. 

I had my camera on me as I often do and said to the ‘man’ behind the counter how much for the Ektar100, he quickly responded with that’s an expensive film you know, which I was well aware of let’s be real film can an expensive hobby, he then offered me the Ultramax and points to the camera and says that will work for the lens you have, now I appreciate that he is probably very knowledgeable but at this point he crosses from I’m helping you out to I can’t imagine you would know what your talking about. (Whether this is me being young, a girl or just a customer) but I still wasn’t overly keen on the interaction.

Despite me then saying I’d still much prefer the Ektar100 and the £1 difference in price wasn’t an issue. He told me that he knew what would be best and that’s what he would be selling me……. 

I walked out with my Ultramax film annoyed at how I’d been spoken to but also how I’d actually done nothing but just accepted it and bought the damn film I should have either stood up and said no I want this film or walked out and gone somewhere else. This was a useful lesson in the reminder of standing up for what you want and not letting anyone make your decisions for you. 

Yeah the Ultramax is a very decent film I liked the shots I took, I’d probably use it again but that is never the point, I knew what I wanted and I let someone give me something else without even listening to why I wanted it in the first place because they didn’t think my views were valid, so in summary trust yourself and do what you want art and photography isn’t about the best film and the best camera it’s about the shot the thoughts and feelings and most importantly it’s what you want to achieve and capture from your images. 

Anyway here are some of my photos using the Ultramax which would be a great film to use for low light photos as it’s got an ISO of 400.